Iran's proxy war with Israel

A Hamas military leader has confirmed what most have already suspected: that fighters from the Palestinian party's "armed wing" (number 8 on the top 10 signs your group may be a terrorist organization) are being trained in Iran by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Israel has long insisted that Iran is behind this training. Last week Yuval Diskin, the head of the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet, said as much when he claimed that Hamas had “started to dispatch people to Iran, tens and a promise of hundreds”. He provided no evidence.

The Hamas commander, however, confirmed for the first time that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been training its men in Tehran for more than two years and is currently honing the skills of 150 fighters.

The details he gave suggested that, if anything, Shin Bet has underestimated the extent of Iran’s influence on Hamas’s increasingly sophisticated tactics and weaponry.

And that's not all. While the curdled cream of the Hamas crop go to Iran for advanced training, the rank and file infantry grunts are being trained in Syria.

According to the commander, a further 650 Hamas fighters have trained in Syria under instructors who learnt their techniques in Iran. Sixty-two are in Syria now.

But have no fear. I'm sure that just as soon as Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton get elected, they'll engage in substantive dialog with Syria and Iran and all this will come to screeching halt.